Saturday 25th November 2023

Chilly morning. Southbound 53 Common Scoter, 40 Shelduck, 27 Brent, 7 Black-headed Gull, 7 Common Gull, 3 Oyk, 2 Lapwing, 2 Red-throated Diver, Goldeneye & Spoonbill with northbound 25 Common Scoter, 11 Brent, 2 Spoonbill, Curlew, Golden Plover & Red-throat plus 25 Common Scoter offshore. On site 8 Mipit, 2 Chaffinch, Cetti's, Snow Bunting & Woodcock. The Spoonbill really do need to head for warmer climes as winter sets in.

Light Brown Apple-moth was accidently introduced from Australia 100 years ago and is now one of our commonest moths that can be found all year round.

Ringing: nil.

Friday 24th November 2023

 

Bleak. 328 Cormorant headed out fishing.  Only migrants were 4 Skylark in off plus Fieldfare & Goldcrest on site. Offshore southbound 34 Red-throated Diver, 17 Common Gull, 9 Shelduck, 2 Oyk & Goldeneye with northbound 24 Common Scoter, 7 Red-throats, Guillemot & Razorbill. 23 Ringos & 3 Sanderling were on the beach early on.

Ringing: 1 Goldcrest.

Thursday 23rd November 2023

 

New in a handful of Blackies & a Chaffinch all on the large size indicating a distant origin to the north & east of us. Vis mig grinding to a halt with southbound 36 Starling, 5 Goldfinch, 3 Chaffinch, 2 Skylark plus a Yellowhammer heading north. Offshore movements negligable. 16 Ringos, 6 Sanderling & a Snow Bunting were on the beach early on. Still a flock of 18 Mipit on the reserve although they should depart for finer climes shortly.

Moth numbers & variety running out as winter sets in. Angle Shades can appear in the traps at any time all autumn/winter.

Ringing: 3 Blackbird, 1 Chaffinch.

Wednesday 22nd November 2023

 

Interesting looking Siberian Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita tristis quite possibly from the western end of its range fulvescens type due to various green tinges in its plumage (particularly so on the underwing coverts not shown). Call "tristis" (also not shown in photo!). Complicated taxa not resolved with current knowledge and understanding.

An arrival of 30 Blackies, 2 Rock Pipit, 2 Woodcock plus 35 Lapwing and Starlings arriving in off the sea from late morning & a couple of Chaffinch dropping in in the afternoon. Southbound 150 Starling, 64 Black-headed Gull, 17 Common Gull, 17 Common Scoter, 11 Dunlin, 10 Shelduck, 6 Brent, 3 Siskin, 2 Redshank & Skylark with northbound 16 Brent, 5 Red-throated Diver & Shelduck. A Great-northern Diver headed south then into the river mouth possibly heading for the Stour. 3 Firecrest, 2 Goldcrest & Cetti's are lingering around the reserve with a Snow Bunting heard on three separate occasions throughout the morning but only seen in flight, high up, once.

First December Moth to appear this winter - which is odd as its main flight period is throughout November so lets hope that they are just late on parade this year and not suffering a setback.

Ringing: 12 Blackbird, 2 Chaffinch, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Robin.

Ringing Recoveries

Chaffinch ringed Isle of Grain, Medway, Kent 70 km away on 8th November 2021 was retrapped LBO 21st October 2023. Presumably a continental bird coming into the UK for the winter via slightly different routes.

Blackbird ringed Haradsskar, Gyrt, Valdemark, Ostergotland, Sweden 1211 km away on 6th October 2021 was retrapped LBO 28th October 2023. This will be a bird coming into the UK for the winter.

Robin ringed Finset, Hemsedal, Buskerud, Norway 1086 km away on 21st September 2022 was retrapped LBO 12th November 2023 will also be a bird coming into the UK for the winter.

Tuesday 21st November 2023

Annoying fine mizzle on & off for most of the morning. An adult Iceland Gull flew south mid-morning and a Moorhen on the "icky ridge" are both good Landguard birds. Other migrants included a small handful of new Blackies, Fieldfare, Redwings, Songies & a Chaffinch. A couple of Goldcrest are lingering on site, Shag flew up river and a Snow Bunting was on the beach. Also worth a mention are 4 Stock Dove.  Offshore southbound 63 Brent, 11 Black-heads, 2 Common Scoter, 2 Shelduck, Red-throated Diver & Teal with northbound 5 Red-throats, 4 Common Scoter & Barnacle Goose. 18 Gannets were pulling in behind shipping amongst the melee of gulls foraging on what's being churned up by propellers. A few flocks of Starling are arriving in off from late morning presumably having departed the Low Countries at dawn.

Yellow-line Quaker is an autumnal flyer that turns up roughly every other year in low numbers with this being the third of this autumn following on from nil last year.

Ringing: 1 Blackbird, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Redwing.

Monday 20th November 2023

 

First site record of Hemp although, being sweet innocent souls, looking at the size of it we have been walking past it for weeks.

Glorious morning although not a lot on the move as autumn grinds to a halt. Now 2 Snow Bunting on the beach, Firecrest and Lesser Whitethroat on the reserve & Rock Pipit on the point. Heading south 19 Goldfinch, 2 Siskin & Mipit plus 2 Goosander in the early afternoon.

Ringing: nil

Sunday 19th November 2023

 

New in on site a couple of Blackies, Robin, Chaffinch, Snow Bunting with leftovers from recent days 3 Goldcrest plus the pale Lesser 'throat (that actually has three tail feathers remaining and not just one, as we thought a couple of days back). Southbound 38 Brent, 22 Goldfinch, 6 Skylark, 4 Gannet, 3 Common Gull, Curlew, Kitt & Redpoll with northbound 19 Common Scoter (+ 25 sat on the sea) & a Gannet. A Grey Phalarope was reported on the sea 1500 hrs.

The long awaited first site record of Sprawler which is a woodland species absent from this end of the Felixstowe peninsula. It is classified as 'vulnerable' on the Red List of species conservation concern.

Ringing: 2 Robin, 1 Blackbird, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Song Thrush.